San Timoteo Canyon

[1] San Timoteo Creek formed the canyon, and flows northwest through it to its confluence with the Santa Ana River, being a tributary of it.

Acting on the orders of the local Justice of the Peace, the Californio owner of the rancho and whose house the Irving Gang were robbing at the time, the Cahuilla attacked and pursued them into San Timoteo Canyon, where in a running fight they killed eleven of the twelve men in the gang after they refused to surrender.

[3] There were decades of precedent for the Mountain Cahuilla who working on the local ranchos, tracking and hunting down bandits and other tribe's raiders was a service they were requested for in the San Bernardino region, during the 1822–1846 Mexican rule in Alta California.

The American leader of the militia, Major General Joshua Bean, discovered the truth about the events and with difficulty restrained his troops from attacking the Cahuilla, preventing a battle and massacre.

It was acquired by Riverside County Parks from the Beaumont Unified School District in 1993, but was not opened to the public until after 2007, when a five-year restoration was completed.

[10][11][12] In 2010, a construction crew found a deposit of Irvingtonian fossils dating back 1.4 million years ago in San Timoteo Canyon.

They included those of: two species of sabretooth cats; ground sloths the size of a modern-day grizzly bear; two types of camels; and more than 1,200 bones from small rodents.